"Living Stereo" CD issues (Boxsets and SACDs)

[Dave2002]

I didn't realise until a few minutes ago that a box set of Living Stereo CDs is available.

This will be no good to SACD or 3 channel enthusiasts, but may be of interest to regular CD collectors. I don't know the track listing, yet!

I should have noted the price (e.g. at Amazon UK) when I posted first, which could be a good practice for all of us when reporting "bargains" etc., to avoid later confusion. Over the last few days the price on the box set has been shooting up, and is now over £165 at Amazon UK. I thought it was around £100 - perhaps £110 when I first posted. At that price it could have been considered a reasonable buy, working out at less than £2 per CD. It becomes less attractive as the price rises as the recordings are old and many of us will already have alternative versions of most of the music included. Selectively purchasing individual CDs or SACDs starts to become a prefererd option.

However there do now seem to be a lot more of the SACDs available than there were a month or so back. These have fairly widely varying prices, but can often be obtained for around £6 from Amazon marketplace sellers, sometimes for a few pounds less.

The link to the track/CD listing in the box set is in msg 10.

SACD lists

http://www.amazon.com/RCA-Living-Ste.../23EJJ5NPTN2AL from amazon.com

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/?ie=UTF8&k...l_60rftj8jyo_b from UK amazon

[Keraulophone]

Around £82 in the Amazon Marketplace (actually £83.76 incl. ordinaire p+p)

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/offer-lis...&condition=new

[richardfinegold]

Richardfinegold

I've now had an opportunity to compare SACD and ordinary CD versions of Munch / BSO in Berlioz Beatrice and Benedict and Benvenuto Cellini using a standard CD player, and to my ears the original CD is both warmer and cleaner in sound. It isn't a huge difference. but the originals have a more atmospheric sense of space, and the climaxes are less brash. Of course, these are early recordings, but as an example the outburst after the jaunty introduction of Beatrice and Benedict is just a little less raucous than the sound on the SACD, with more inner detail.

The shortcomings I noticed on the SACD versions of Gershwin and others with the Boston Pops were more obvious than on the Berlioz, but I have no way of comparing them. All the same I have my suspicions and will avoid buying hybrid SACDs in future.

Bws
Ferret

I haven't listened to thse SACDs using the stereo only feature. My disc spinner will automatically default to
SACD if that layer is available.
I did own several of thse discs, many of which have been rereleased repeatedly. I did compare some of them with the SACD versions in my two channel system. The results were variable. Some were better, others sounded sort of diffuse compared to conventional stereo.
I primarily listen to the SACDs in (3 channels) in my multi channel rig. Different amp, speakers, room, source player, so comparisons are difficult to make.
I hope that you are ambulating better now.

[Dave2002]

Around £82 in the Amazon Marketplace (actually £83.76 incl. ordinaire p+p)

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/offer-lis...&condition=new

Sorry, but no. That's the Mercury box set, not the RCA Living Stereo box. The Mercury box is perhaps better, but we can argue about that. The Decca Sound box is very good, with good recordings, and a good selection of music, but these are slightly off topic.

[Keraulophone]

Ah, my apologies. Good things in the Mercury too!

[Dave2002]

Around £82 in the Amazon Marketplace (actually £83.76 incl. ordinaire p+p)

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/offer-lis...&condition=new

Re msgs 19 and 20, this set is currently available from Amazon UK for £79.56 http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B...ls_o00_s00_i00

[Dave2002]

Re msgs 19 and 20, this set is currently available from Amazon UK for £79.56 http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B...ls_o00_s00_i00

At present BlahDVD are advertising the Living Stereo CD set for under £60 - http://www.blahdvd.com/search.htm?ty...=Living+stereo - £55.29 right now.

[Nick Armstrong]

I may have missed it (both on the Forum, and on Radio 3), but there seems to have been no reference to the third of the "Living Stereo" boxsets, released earlier this month:



Even in my non-CD-buying state these days, I find this tempting - more so even than the complete Mozart box (whose appeal I managed to resist).

I've always loved the "Living Stereo" sound. Of the 60 CDs, 48 are 'first time on CD'...

Anyone taken the plunge? Or resolved upon some tactical sycophancy with Father Christmas...?

[gradus]

The Living Stereo Tchaikovsky Swan Lake excerpts ROH orchestra under Jean Morel are well worth acquiring but I don't see the recording listed on the reissue. I listened to the LP again recently and enjoyed it enormously, there is tremendous verve in the performance and the recording still sounds quite good in stereo that captures a surprisingly wide dynamic range,one of those where you feel as much as hear the bass drum.

[Dave2002]

I eventually bought Volume 2, and have quite enjoyed it, but the CDs tend to be on the short side. The listing of the latest box can be seen in this page - http://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/sea...ereo++&page=10 - middle of page.

[Nick Armstrong]

I eventually bought Volume 2, and have quite enjoyed it, but the CDs tend to be on the short side. The listing of the latest box can be seen in this page - http://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/sea...ereo++&page=10 - middle of page.

There's a direct link in my post below; useful to have the listings for boxes 1 & 2 on your link though

[Dave2002]

Currently over £100 even in places where lower prices have emerged for other similar boxes in the past, such as https://www.amazon.co.uk/Living-Ster...=living+stereo